This project will be collaborative with the States of Oregon and Washington, the Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).  The scope of the project includes a 3 person, boat-based, sea lion hazing crew operating 5 days a week for approximately 3 months near Bonneville Dam.  This crew will conduct non-lethal sea lion hazing, assist with trapping (not actual trapping) for attaching acoustic tags, and other field duties.  A second objective will be implementing a project to estimate sea lion predation outside of the ACOE observation area.  The ACOE observation project is limited to the Bonneville Dam tailrace area that is viewable from the deck of the Dam.  We are working to adapt a previously developed video fish counting technology to enumerate sea lions and predation on salmonids.  A video system will be deployed to observe river surface activities in quantified areas of the river.  Software will be used to scan recordings and select times when water surface disturbances are detected.  Technicians will then review these time periods and note sea lion presence and predation activities.  An additional video system will be deployed within the Corps observation area below Bonneville Dam where visual observation are being made by the Corps and ground-truthing is possible.  Acoustic telemetry data will be collected to evaluate coarser scale movements of California sea lions.  Observations regarding affinity to particular feeding stations, fine scale movement of animals in the area near Bonneville Dam, and coarse scale movement of animals downstream in the lower Columbia River will be made.  

Objective 1.  Conduct boat-based non lethal sea lion hazing annually generally between March 1 and May 31.
Objective 2.  Develop a video system to enumerate sea lions and estimate predation.
Objective 3. Track movements of individual sea lions at various spatial scales in the Columbia River using acoustic telemetry.

METHODS

Boat hazing activities will occur during daylight hours between the Bonneville Dam face to 6 miles downstream.  The hazing boat will be crewed by three people (one boat captain, one data collector and one person hazing), and will coordinate activities with the state hazing boat (WDFW) and Department of Agriculture hazing crews on Bonneville Dam.  Hazing will be boat-based and include acoustic and tactile deterrents (seal bombs, cracker shells, rubber buckshot, and vessel chase) in an attempt to deter pinnipeds.  

Data on all sea lion encounters will be recorded following protocols established by the states which include the time and location of the initial encounter, species, direction of movement, fish kill information, numbers and types of deterrents used, and time, location and direction at the end of the encounter.  All data collected will be sent to ODFW/WDFW to be included in the overall hazing evaluation.  In-season activities are summarized on a weekly basis by the Corps.  Included in those summaries are effects from boat-based hazing.  A collaborative annual report is also produced which details the project.  All activities funded by the BPA will be included in this collaborative report.  

Project participants receive safety briefings from CRITFC, USACE, ODFW, and WDFW personnel.  Briefings cover boat operations and clearance for activities in the Boat Restricted Zone (BRZ) below the dam, overhead hazards, lockout procedures, hazardous water conditions, personal safety equipment (PFDs, ear and eye protection), communications, and project planning details.  A safety protocol for pyrotechnic deployment from the boats will be discussed.  Boat teams receive briefings on vessel safety equipment and rescue procedures at the time of launch.  While inside the Boat Restricted Zone (BRZ), hazing boats maintain VHF-radio contact with the Bonneville Dam Vessel Control officer for status and vessel traffic updates.

We are working to develop a system for estimating sea lion predation and abundance downstream of the Corps observation area using video surveillance technology.  This will be an extension of the video fish counting systems that we pioneered in early 1990’s (Hatch et al. 1994, 1998) that are currently being used at numerous locations in New England (Haro and Fryer 2006), Michigan, Oregon, Alaska, and Europe.  One video system would be deployed to observe river surface activities in known areas of the river.  The camera system will scan the surface recording low and high resolution images that will be recorded on a computer.  Fish counting software will be used to scan recordings and select only the times when water surface disturbances are detected.  Technicians will then review these time periods and note sea lion presence and predation activities.

The acoustic telemetry project will work in concert with existing telemetry arrays already maintained by CRITFC (BPA project 2007-401-00) and the Oregon and Washington sea lion capture and branding efforts.  This project will also collaborate with the BPA-funded Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking (POST) project (BPA project 2003-114-00) as well as other projects using compatible acoustic equipment.  This project will use similar methods to Wright et al. (2007) which studied feeding behaviors of Harbor Seals on the Alsea River using acoustic telemetry. Vemco acoustic transmitters will be externally attached to captured individuals that are not eligible for removal, by the states’ trapping effort (the states will capture and attach the transmitters).  Based on past trapping efforts, we expect to tag up to 12 animals.  Acoustic hydrophones will be set up in several arrays near each of the tailraces of Bonneville Dam and in several locations between the dam and marker 85.  Existing arrays are located on the Columbia River at Rkm 0, 53 and 140 under another CRITFC study (BPA project 2007-401-00).

OUTCOME/OBJECTIVES:

1. Hazing activities will attempt to deter sea lion presence near Bonneville Dam and its fishways in an attempt to reduce predation on ESA listed spring Chinook and steelhead.  While conducting these hazing activities, data will be collected on sea lion:  1) abundance and distribution, 2) predation attempts and rates; and, 3) effectiveness of deterrent actions

2. Data collected will be added to the existing state, ACOE, and NOAA databases concerning sea lion presence away from the ocean, predation on ESA and non-ESA listed fish species, and the effectiveness of hazing on deterring sea lion presence.  Data collection and reporting will be consistent with and included in a field report similar to last year (Wright et al. 2007).

3. Development of a video-based system to estimate abundance of and predation by sea lions in the lower Columbia River.  

4. Using hydroacoustic telemetry, coarse scale movements of tagged individuals will be recorded as they migrate between the ocean and Bonneville Dam.  Finer scale movements near the dam should provide data on diurnal feeding habits, duration and preferred location of feeding sites, number of feeding and resting cycles in a given day, and detection efficiencies of visual and video enumerations (ground-truthing).